0\t THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 40J 



p'omfrtt, rock-fish, skate, gurnards, sardinas, roe- 

 balls, sable, shad, aloose, coekup, grfcbers, seer-iish, 

 old wives, yellow tails, snappers, devil-fish, cat-fish, 

 prawns, shrimps, cray-fish, and many others: a spe- 

 cies resembling the whale, and sharks of an enormous 

 size, are met with. A variety of shell-fish are found 

 on the reefs, and in some places oysters of an excel- 

 lent quality. Of the many madrapores, coraline.^ 

 zoophites, and shells, none have yet been discovered 

 but such as are found elsewhere. 



The Andaman islands are inhabited by a race of men 

 the least civilized, perhaps, in the world ; being nearer 

 to a state of nature than any people we read of. Their 

 colour is of the darkest hue, their stature in general 

 small, and their aspect uncouth. Their limbs are ill 

 formed and slender, their bellies prominent, and, like 

 the Africans, they have woolly heads*, thick lips, and 



flat 



* In this respect they differ from all the various tribes inhabiting 

 the conrinent of ds.ia t or its islands A story is somewhere told of a 

 ship full of African slaves, of both sexes, having been cast away at 

 the Andamans ; and that having put to death their masters and the 

 ship's crew, they spread themselves over, and peopled the country. 

 This story does not appear to have been well authenticated, nor have 

 I ever met with the particular author who relates it. They have been 

 asserted by some to be cannibals, and by others [vide Captain Ha- 

 milton's Voyage, and all the Geographical Dictionaries) to be a 

 harmless and inoffensive people, living chiefly on rice and vegetables. 

 That they are cannibals has never been fully proved, although from 

 their cruel and sanguinary disposition, great voracity, and cunning 

 modes of lying in ambush, there is reason to suspect, that in attack- 

 ing strangers they are frequently impelled by hunger, as thev inva- 

 riably put to death the unfortunate victims who fall under their hands. 

 No positive instance, howerer, has been known of their eating the 

 flesh of their enemies ; although the bodies of some whom they have 

 killed, have been found mangled and torn. It would be difficult to 

 account for their unremitting hostility to strangers, without ascribing 

 this as the cause, unless the story of their origin, as abovementioned, 



D d 3 should 



